Diary of a stressed Network Manager.... Part 2

It's been one hell of a stressful and busy six weeks, but the school summer holiday will shortly be over and the start of a new academic year will be upon us once more.

A few weeks ago I was stressing, worrying and having sleepiness nights about getting both Evesham High School's and Simon de Montfort Middle School's networks merged in time ready for September when the school becomes an entirely new school called The De Montfort School.

I'm relieved to say we did it!  Ok, I managed one day off during the whole time, I'm knackered and exhausted, but both schools are now on one network and I can once again sleep at night....  For the time being at least.  Of course, that's not all we've done.

• New Aruba Networks wireless system comprising of 65 access points (to replace an aging Netgear managed system) installed at the High School to cope with a larger number of mobile devices connecting to the network.  These allow increased wireless speed AND better coverage across the site.
• Upgrade from Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 to Microsoft Exchange 2013 on an entirely new HP Proliant ML350p Gen 8 server with 2 x Intel Xeon 2.30Ghz (12 Cores), 80GB Ram and 5x 600GB drives (Raid 5 configuration so it gives us about 2TB of usable space).
• Nice new intel i5 computers set up in one classroom to replace some god-awful Apple iMacs.

Plus lots of little upgrades here and there to computers and user profiles. 

My newly decorated office - Still a mess!

Of course, I suspect they'll be a few issues to begin with (it wouldn't be the start of a new year without them) and it's going to take some time getting use to not having some of the old IT teachers there now that they have moved on to other schools, but I look forward to working with a new team of teachers and a new technician.  I imagine some people will be quick to criticise certain things but hey ho....  That's just an average day working at EHS... ahem, sorry... TDMS.  Quick to criticise but slow to praise.

Nope - I didn't do anything with this room this year - I just like it hence why I have a picture of it here!

Am I still looking at other jobs or a career change?  YES and YES, but I'll wait and see how this year pans out first.  Things may be different now that we have a new Headteacher joining us...  or perhaps maybe not?

Additionally - the Summer season is nearly over and my favourite time of the year is about to begin. The temperatures are dropping and the nights are getting darker and cooler.  I'm actually feeling quite good - I don't expect it to last, but I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts.

New PC's in newly upgraded DU5 classroom

New PC's in newly upgraded DU5 classroom

New PC's in newly upgraded DU5 classroom

New PC's in newly upgraded DU5 classroom

Diary of a stressed Network Manager.... Part 1

Actually, so far this week has been far from being stressful (which is a pleasant surprise).  We're two days in to the school summer holiday, and I've already managed to get most of what I wanted to do during the first week done and dusted.  OK, I've had to relocate my office to a classroom while my office gets decorated, but so far I have managed to setup and configure 3 servers (1x physical and 2 x virtual), and setup an image of a new PC, ready to be 'ghosted' to a suite of brand new Acer X2631G i5 computers.  And of course move my furniture back in to my usual office.

My office for the past 2 days while my office gets decorated.  Spot the most important piece of technology on my desk....  Yep, the fan!

Our new Microsoft Exchange Server (currently being set up).  Actually it's a host to two virtual servers (one that will host Exchange and another that will be a Domain Controller).

 

My office at 9:00am this morning

My office at 9:00am this morning (from the other direction!)

Still working on it, but this is how my office appeared by the end of the day.  Looking cosy!

 

New PC's ready to be imaged for deployment

My office for the past 2 days - soon to be an IT suite with very nice, shiny new computers.  Out students our sooooo lucky!!

 

Anyway, I really do hope that the rest of the summer holiday goes as smoothly as the first few days.  Wishful thinking?  We'll see.

Winter, hurry up!

I've got to say, I've been rather enjoying this summer weather over the past few days.  "What?  Stuart likes the summer?" I hear you say.  No, not the usual sunny, hot temperatures, but the rather impressive thunderstorms that we have been experiencing lately.

One thing I can not stand is when the press/news go on about the 'awful, wet weather', and that when the sun and hot temperatures come back, it's all "Glorious, lovely weather returns".  Wrong - Not everyone likes the hot, sunny weather.  Stop assuming that everyone likes blistering heat, and blinding sun.  I hate it in fact.  I suffer from severe hay fever, the heat and sun gives me terrible headaches, I sweat so much that I feel like I need to shower every ten minutes.  I cant sleep at night when it's still so humid, and I feel terribly uncomfortable all day long.  I hate it.  I can not understand the appeal of summer.  The sight of half naked men walking down the street, showing off their disgusting bodies (seriously girls, do you find that attractive?).  Being stuck in a queue right behind someone who has BO - I mean seriously, instead of buying several cans of lager, treat yourself to some deodrant, or soap!  Also, I can think of a thousand better places to be than on a overly crowded beach, surrounded by hot, sweaty, smelly people.  And is it just me, or do others also find beaches such dirty places, with litter and rubbish left by these so called sun worshippers?

AND don't get me started on men in flip flops and sandals.

So, it has been rather refreshing that this year we've had some spectacular thunderstorms, and quite a bit of rain to help cool the air.  OK, so the thunderstorm that we had yesterday caused a power cut at the school resulting in me having to pop in to work for an hour (on a Saturday), but hey - that's a small price to pay for such lovely weather.

So, for all you people out there who think hot sunny weather is the best - spare a thought for people like me (and I know there are many others like me) who suffer during this dreadful time of year.  The best weather is when it's cool and raining.  Bit of wind and snow is nice too - but definitely not the sun or heat.

Roll on the Winter, and bring a few more thunderstorms our way please!

IN OTHER NEWS....

After a sad final last day of term on Friday where I had to say goodbye to some wonderful work colleagues/friends who have decided to move on to new adventures elsewhere, the school summer holiday is finally upon me (where has the past year gone?), which means six weeks of stress and worry while I get both Evesham High School's and Simon de Montfort Middle School's networks merged in to one.  Not great when I'm having my office completely redecorated at the same time.

My office, as it currently looks - Who needs a desk?

 

One of our ICT Classrooms (DU1), currently being used as a storage room while my office is painted, and a new carpet placed down.

 

It's going to be difficult getting things done whilst the decorators are in, so I am really hoping that they'll be able to get it finished early this week so that I can start with the actual merge the following week.  That and setting up a new suite of computers AND a new Exchange Server.  This summer holiday is going to go down on record as being the most stressful ever.

If I make it to September without a coronary, I'll be amazed!

Busy, busy, busy....

Bit of a change to the usual posts here at the Captain's Blog.  These past few weeks have been quite busy at work, what with it being that magical time of the year when we all get our budgets for the year, and can start spending cash on some fancy new items for school. 

This year, we've kitted out two rooms with some fancy new computers and I thought I'd share some pictures with you of the finished rooms.  If only we had this kind of technology when I was at school.

The kids of today are extremely lucky!

Big thanks to the team for helping to get everything done during the May half-term holiday in time for when the staff and students returned the following week.

HU4 - Before

This room had some awfully slow Celeron desktops in it.

 

HU4 - After

They're not new, but we've placed some slightly better spec PCs in the room.  Looking good!

 

LU5 - Before
This room had the computers which are now in HU4.

 

LU5 - After
Now with some nice, and very quick i3 all-in-ones desktop PCs

 

LG1 - Before
This room wasn't too bad - It had a number of Core 2 Duo computers, but desk space was a problem.  They've been moved to another room, and....

 

LG1 - After
Now kitted out with some Acer Veriton Z2610 i3 all-in-one desktop PCs, like LU5

 

AND, just today we've had a delivery of a nice, shiny new server - an HP Proliant ML350 G8 with 2 quad core processors and 32Gb of RAM...  Perfect for my virtualisation plan.....  More on that in the near future.

 

Father Christmas (aka the UPS Courier) has arrived early this year!

 

Inside the beast!

 

So all in all... it hasn't been a bad couple of weeks.  Hard to believe that another school year has nearly reached its end.  Even harder to believe is that next year will be my 10th year at Evesham High School - gosh, where has the time gone?